In a consequential development that could influence President Donald Trump’s ability to execute his agenda, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Thursday to seek voter approval for redrawn partisan political districts favoring Democrats ahead of the 2026 congressional midterms.
Newsom, an ambitious Democrat who has pushed the plan as a necessary response to partisan redistricting initiated first by Texas Republicans, signed the Election Rigging Response Act shortly after it was passed by Democrats in the state Legislature. The act would place a measure on the November 2025 ballot to temporarily throw out the state’s districts for the U.S. House of Representatives, which are drawn by an independent commission balanced between Democrats, Republicans and others.
Replacing those districts would be new maps drawn by the state’s Democratic members of Congress to flip five seats currently held by Republican representatives.
When signing the bill, Newsom took aim at President Donald Trump’s deportation policies and tariffs. The governor blamed the Republican president for the deepening battle over redistricting.
“We got here because he recognizes that he will lose the election, that Congress will go back into the hands of the Democratic Party next November,” Newsom said, adding, “He can’t win by playing by traditional sets of rules. He plays by no rules.”
“Today we give every Californian the power to say ‘No,’” Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas said earlier Thursday on the chamber floor. “To say no to Donald Trump’s power grab and yes to our people, to our state and to our democracy.”
Democrats in California rushed out their redistricting plan the day after Republicans in the Texas House of Representatives approved their own gerrymandering ploy. That legislation is expected to pass in the GOP-dominated state. A national battle over redistricting began this summer when Trump asked Texas Republicans to redraw district lines ahead of the 2026 midterms to give his party five more seats.
“Big WIN for the Great State of Texas!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday. “Everything Passed, on our way to FIVE more Congressional seats and saving your Rights, your Freedoms, and your Country, itself. Texas never lets us down.”
Trump’s directive to the Texans kicked off a tit-for-tat with Newsom and California Democrats, who said they’d redraw districts in the Golden State to offset any GOP gains. Behind the scenes, the state’s Democratic delegation in Congress designed partisan maps with a political data expert and the guiding hand of Silicon Valley Rep. Zoe Lofgren. The gerrymandering battle has spread to other states.
“We’re here today for one reason: the nefarious actions of the Republican leadership in Texas,” said California Senate President Mike McGuire. “California didn’t pick this fight.”
In the Assembly, two Democrats abstained from voting on the legislation: Dawn Addis, who represents Monterey and the central coast, and Alex Lee, who represents Fremont and Milpitas. A spokesperson for Lee declined to comment. Last week, Lee had expressed support for independent redistricting but did not say definitively if he supported his party’s redistricting strategy.
After the governor signs the bills, Newsom and top Democrats will immediately kick off what is expected to be a hard-fought and expensive political campaign to convince enough voters to greenlight the ballot measure this fall. It’s already attracted attention from heavyweights on both sides of the aisle.
This week, former Democratic President Barack Obama said he supported redistricting in California. Earlier this month, former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican who stumped for redistricting when he led the state, said he’s opposed. Even before Newsom signed the legislation, mailers began arriving in Bay Area mailboxes urging voters to reject the redistricting measure.
“We cannot save democracy by burning it down in California,” reads one mailer, paid for by a committee funded by Republican megadonor Charles Munger.
Political analysts previously told Bay Area News Group that the redistricting fight is of political benefit for Newsom, who recently began speaking more openly about his aspirations to run for president in 2028. The New York Times reported on Thursday that Newsom has raised more than $6 million since he started campaign for redistricting last week.
“This nation is just now seeing what Californians already know: when others are scared to act, Gov. Gavin Newsom shows the courage to lead,” East Bay state Sen. Aisha Wahab said on the Senate floor.
Democrats hold supermajorities in each chamber of the state Legislature and easily approved the bills Thursday despite the outrage of Republican lawmakers. On Wednesday, the California Supreme Court dismissed a legal challenge by legislative Republicans, setting the stage for the Democrats’ plan to proceed.
Nonetheless, James Gallagher, the top Republican in the state Assembly, condemned the redistricting legislation as “illegal” in a speak on the chamber floor. Gallagher noted that California voters twice approved independent redistricting in 2008 and 2010.
“We really don’t need to ask them a third time, guys,” he told his colleagues. “Twice, they told us that they want independent redistricting, fair representation.”
The proposed maps do not significantly reshape district lines in the Bay Area, which is entirely represented by Democrats. Currently, the vast majority of California’s districts are not competitive, but a handful are political battlefields. If approved, the new district lines would inject Democratic voters into battleground districts in the San Joaquin Valley and southern California, including that of Rep. David Valadao. The new districts would also protect some competitive seats currently held by Democrats, including Rep. Adam Gray in the Central Valley.